Randō
Rando (乱童, Randō), also known as Shorin (少林, Shōrin), is the main antagonist during the Genkai Tournament in the first season of Yu Yu Hakusho. Is voiced by Yō Inoue in the original Japanese and Eric Vale in the English dub. Appearance When disguised as Shorin, he is appears to be a small child with a fully shaved head, wearing a cap and blue Buddhist monk attire. Apparently, this form was a reference to the shaolin monks, famous for indoctrinating disciples at very young ages. However, in his true form, Rando's hair is a long, bright red. His skin is chalk-white and he has an odd-looking scar on his chest that appears to spread across his torso. He also bears blue tribal markings on his face that resemble a spider. Personality Shorin seemed to be a sweet kid, though fierce in combat. Rando, though, was only concerned with power. He steals techniques from those who have mastered them, and kills the victims after he masters them. Also, while fighting Yusuke, it's revealed that Rando is a sadist when he says that he tested each of the techniques that he stole on the psychics (fighters) that he stole them from, and did so because he wanted them to experience fear. Synopsis Spirit Detective Saga He originally joined the Genkai Tournament under the disguise of Shorin. During the quarter finals he fights Chinpo and won, however no one knows what happened to Chinpo except for Rando. When he reached the finals, it was down to Yusuke, Kuwabara, and himself, Kuwabara fought him. During the match, he used the Shrinking technique to shrink Kuwabara down the size of a doll. Then he mercilessly breaks Kuwabara's arms, legs and rib cage, much to Yusuke's fury and Genkai's disgust. Yusuke steps up to battle, and Rando, as Shorin, tries battling Yusuke, but Yusuke is too enraged at what Rando had done to Kuwabara and dominates the demon. Yusuke believes to have won the fight until Genkai informs him otherwise, and Rando appears in his true form. He then uses the life-force thread technique to swing him wildly around the forest. He then hangs Yusuke off a lake, where he summons his Hate Fish to eat him. Rando then uses the Spirit Gun to blast the branch holding Yusuke above the water. Yusuke falls into the lake, only to be saved by Kuwabara's last bit of spirit energy. Yusuke attempts to fight, but is unable to handle Rando's spirit gun forcing Yusuke to use the canal in the lake to move behind Rando. However, as Rando fires his gun, so does Yusuke. The one flaw Rando had was not pouring all his energy into the attack. Yusuke's gun wipes clear through his defense and throws him to the ground (In the manga however, instead of using his Spirit Gun against Rando, Yusuke simply smashes him to the ground with a powerful punch after emerging behind him from the lake). Though Rando returns to his feet and walks over to Yusuke. Knowing they don't have much energy left, Rando attempts to shrink Yusuke, but it backfires on him. Genkai explains that any spoken chant has to be heard by the victim, or it will turn on the user. Yusuke then pulls algae out of his ear, revealing that he had unintentionally made himself deaf. Yusuke gets up only to collapse, conveniently pummeling Rando with an elbow drop. 'Powers and Abilities' As a master of 99 (100, if the Spirit Gun is counted), he is far above any normal human martial artist master with heightened spiritual awareness, as he had been implied to have easily beat each people of that category with those techniques. However, he relies too much on the techniques' power to win fights rather then combining it with hand-to-hand combat as later characters do, resulting in his humiliating defeat. Without these powerful techniques, he would likely be a D Class demon with strength considered superhuman to normal humans, but quite weak in comparison to most demons. Techniques/Moves *'Circles of Inferno' (火掌発破拳, Kashō Happa-Ken, translated as Destructive Fire-Emitting Palm-Fist, Fire Palm in the Viz Manga): An attack he uses as Shorin. He focuses energy into his hands and creates small fireballs.Yu Yu Hakusho, episode 13, and Manga Vol 4, Chapter 29. *'Sickle and Tornado' (斬空烈風陣, Zankū Reppu-jin, translated as Violent Beheading Wind Air Formation, Slicing Gale Aegis in the Viz Manga): Another attack he uses as Shorin. He creates bladed discs of pure vacuum in his hands that he hurls at his opponents.Yu Yu Hakusho, episode 13, and Manga Vol. 4, Chapter 30. *'Shrinking' (縮身の呪術, Shukushin no Jūjitsu, translated as Curse Technique of Reducing Body): After a chant, the target's body will decrease in size. However, as any chant technique must be performed perfectly, the effect can be negated if the opponent doesn't hear the chant. If that happens, it will backfire and effect the caster.Yu Yu Hakusho, episode 13. *'Life-Force Thread' (妖気の糸, Yōki no Itō, translated as Thread of Demons, Aura Thread in the Viz Manga): Numerous strands of thread are created from Rando's mouth, which then ensnare the target. They combine to create a whip that directly feeds off Rando's energy.Yu Yu Hakusho, episode 14, and Manga Vol. 4 Chapter 30 *'Hate Fish' (魔界魚, Makai Gyo, translated as Demon World Fish): After chanting, he can summon fish from the demon world, which he affectionately calls "hate fish" These fish seem to be a mixture of alligator, shark and pirana species.Yu Yu Hakusho, episode 14. *'Spirit Gun' (霊丸, Reigan): After observing Yusuke, Rando developed a variation of the Spirit Gun in which he discharges a condensed blast of Demon Energy from his outstretched index finger. Although, unlike Yusuke, he doesn't use all of his energy in order to fire a blast. And, given that he's actually a demon, this really should be called Demon Gun (妖丸, Yōgan) instead.Yu Yu Hakusho, episode 14. *'Trainer Demon': Rando also displays the ability to summon a "trainer demon", an almost rat like demon creature which he can control. It starts out as not much larger than Rando's own hand, but quickly becomes human sized when he releases it. He uses this to exhibit the veracious appetite of his hate fish. It is heavily implied to be an E Class demon.Yu Yu Hakusho, episode 14. Trivia *Rando is the first demon in the series not to be motivated by conquest or primitive instinct, but the sadistic pleasure of pain from his victims; something that becomes a trait for a majority of the future antagonists, regardless of their goals. *Rando is the first user of the demon variation of the Demon Gun, Yusuke would be the second near the finale of the series, using a deadlier variant of the technique. *Rando is implied to be based on the spider, as he has a spider-shaped mark on his face makes the victims small enough to be less of a threat which is similar to how spiders trap their prey in a web before eating them and is able to produce thread. *Rando is the last main antagonist and opponent of Yusuke Urameshi to lose to the latter's luck, rather then the all-out hand-to-hand combat of the later enemies. *Rando bears several resemblances to the Inuyasha villain Naraku. Both have heavily implied Spider themes, both take the techniques of others(In Naraku's case, absorbing a demon and gaining their unique abilities), etc... *Rando is the only one of Yusuke's enemies with evil intentions (aside from Hiei who reformed after his defeat) to be alive after the fight. References Category:Characters Category:Demons